Elastix: Replace the "phonebook" with the more feature rich "directory"

Introduction

The audio interface of the Elastix "phonebook" leaves a lot to be desired. For starters, you can only look up users / subscribers by first name. Second, all matches are spelled back to you letter-by-letter, not read back to you as you would expect. However, by default, it is easily and intuitively accessed by dialing 411 from any connected phone ("411" is practically synonymous with "information").

The Elastix "directory" solves these shortcomings, but it's accessed by a less intuitive command from connected phones: dialing "#".

Below, I'll show you a few quick changes that will let you train your users to simply dial "411" to look up extensions.

Steps
(3 total)

1

Edit the Elastix feature codes

From the PBX module of Elastix, click "feature codes" on the left navigation pane.

2

Re-map the Phonebook and Directory codes

Uncheck the "default" checkbox and modify the feature codes (the digits the user will dial from the phone keypad to access the Phonebook and Dirrectory). Assign the Directory to "411" and the Phonebook to anything else that is not used. I used "412", but "#" (previously used by the Directory) or anything else would work.

3

Submit and Apply Changes

Conclusion

This certainly isn't rocket science, and it's something that you would have stumbled upon eventually anyway. But, it wasn't immediately apparent to me to do this little trick to make finding extensions easier for my employees. This is perhaps less of a "how to" and more of a "did you think of doing this?", but hopefully you found it helpful.